A storage network is a network that connects a set of host computers with one or more storage devices. Host computers typically store configuration information regarding the capabilities and requirements of components in the storage network. Configuration information may describe the physical devices connected to the network and can include, for example, the amount of memory on the storage devices, data bus types, installed system software services, specific user and group application profiles, and hardware specifications.
A drawback of current data storage products is the use of an excessive number of configuration files. Since the host computers are relatively self-sufficient and store their own configuration information, the task of data and application management on a host computer has become increasingly burdensome. Current data storage products have numerous text-based files, which needed to be individually edited in order to achieve a working configuration. Although it is possible to propagate minor changes or fixes to applications that reside on a server on the network to the host computers, any significant upgrade, fix or installation of a new application that affects every host in the network requires that each host computer be accessed and updated individually by a network administrator. With the increasing number of host computers being connected to storage networks, installing major revisions or upgrades to application software or to general configuration software is expensive, inefficient, and time-consuming.